According to Max Weber, what would we call a body that “successfully claims a monopoly of legitimate force within a particular territory”?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → State
Option (1) State — Correct. In its most general sense, the state is a set of political-legal institutions claiming control over a particular territory and the people living in it. In Max Weber’s well-known definition, a state is a body that successfully claims a monopoly of legitimate force in a particular territory.
Option (2) Military — Incorrect. The armed forces are one arm of the state, along with the legislature, bureaucracy, judiciary and police. They use force on behalf of the state; the body that claims the monopoly is the state itself.
Option (3) Bureaucracy — Incorrect. The bureaucracy is the administrative arm of the state, the officials who run it. It works for the state but is not the body that claims legitimate force over a territory.
Option (4) Nation — Incorrect. A nation is a large-scale community, a community of communities whose members wish to be part of the same political collectivity. That wish usually leads it to seek a state, but a nation is a community, not a body holding the monopoly of force.
NCERT (2025-26): “Nations and Nation-States … At the simplest level, a nation is a sort of large-scale community – it is a community of communities. Members of a nation share the desire to be part of the same political collectivity. This desire for political unity usually expresses itself as the aspiration to form a state. In its most general sense, the term state refers to an abstract entity consisting of a set of political-legal institutions claiming control over a particular geographical territory and the people living in it. In Max Weber’s well-known definition, a state is a ‘body that successfully claims a monopoly of legitimate force in a particular territory’ (Weber 1970:78). A nation is a peculiar sort of community that is easy to describe but hard to define.…” |